Shadow of the Leaf
by Kai the Enchanter
Summary: Konoha has fallen to Sound. Watch the attempts to rebuild and take revenge through the eyes of one of its greatest shinobi. More wanderings, and the fates of some of the key players are revealed!
1. Prologue: Wandering Vagabond

Shadow of the Leaf  
  
By Kai the Enchanter

AN: I got bored with the Leaves of Autumn storyline. Not that I'm not continuing it, it's just that I had this cool idea and I decided to go along with it.  
  
Disclaimer: I really wish I owned Naruto, but I don't  
  
Summary: Konoha has fallen. See the attempts to rebuild and take revenge through the eyes of one of its greatest shinobi, and witness his trials  
  
Prologue: Wandering Vagabond  
  
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The lands were in chaos, wherever one traveled. Wandering villagers ravaged the countryside for food, unable to stop to plant crops, for fear of the roving bands of shinobi who would pillage their fields. In the wake of the fall of Konoha, everything seemed to have gone wrong. There was no peace in Fire Country, indeed, Fire Country itself seemed to be a myth. Hidden Mist and the other countries had made great encroachments upon their territory, and it seemed that the legacy of the Shodaime of the Leaf was all for nothing.  
  
In the midst of all this, a single, solitary wanderer walks the fields that once boasted the finest yields in all the lands. It was spring, but the joy of new life was sucked out by the triumph of the Hidden Sound. Their shinobi were everywhere, hunting down all those who dared to openly oppose their leader, and indeed killing a great deal of those who practiced their rebellion in secret. The dried grass crunched under the feet of the traveler. His messy hair flowed out from beneath his hat, modeled like that of a Kage, but without the symbol of any nation on its front. Instead, the character for "shadow" adorned it, and the man was dressed in black and brown robes, perfect for blending in with ruined landscape. His tread was slow, but deliberate. He held himself well, as a man who'd seen great hardships, but had endured them. He grinned as he thought of the easy life he'd once wanted for himself. He wondered where his companions, if any had survived, were.  
  
Jiraiya and Tsunade were almost certainly dead. They'd stayed in the village, determined to either save Konoha or to die with it. For them, there was no point in living if they failed the memory of their sensei. And so they'd been left, with ANBU teams just as determined to stay till the end. The wave of Sound shinobi crashed down upon them, but even this wouldn't be enough to conquer the two sannin.  
  
No, the wanderer thought. The battle wasn't hopeless. In fact, the sannin had almost been able to turn the tide. That was, until the gigantic form of Manda erupted forth from what was once the Hokage's office. And his master, his deadly master stood perched on the great serpent's head, his eyes gleaming. Shudders tremored through the man's body as he remembered the eyes of that man. The man who had sworn that he would be the greatest shinobi in all the lands. The man who would possess every jutsu. But those eyes were nothing. Not compared to the brilliant bloodred gleam of Uchiha Sasuke's Mangekyou Sharingan. For it was Sasuke who had stood upon Manda that day, having disposed of Orochimaru only weeks before. It was Sasuke who had annihilated the Leaf, with his minions. And now, it was Sasuke who drove his shinobi in a ceaseless hunt for the location of Uchiha Itachi.  
  
A sigh. To think, that one man's hatred could have destroyed generations of goodwill and earnestness. And now, the Leaf shinobi that survived were being hunted down. Sasuke would need a great arsenal to conquer Itachi. So far, it'd been said that he'd mastered the jutsus of many a great shinobi, including Orochimaru's. For it was Uchiha Sasuke's intention to create the perfect shinobi body. His hunters scoured the lands for every shinobi bloodline ever known. His goal was to combine Hyuuga, Uchiha, Kaguya (if any still survived), Aburame, Nara, Yamanaka, every bloodline, until he had the perfect body. His score with Itachi would be settled long before then, but Uchiha Sasuke was a perfectionist if nothing else. At least he could use his perfect body to spit on Itachi's grave.  
  
The wanderer paused in his thinking to take a bite out of a pear he'd plucked from a tree. It wasn't pear season, was it? He couldn't remember. It wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things anyway. He gazed up at the clouds and sighed again. To think, he'd hoped that today would be another boring day. Another day of peace. But it was too late for that. As he gazed, twenty shinobi dropped out of the trees, around him.  
  
"Nara Shikamaru...Sasuke-sama demands an audience with you..." Shikamaru looked down at them, and sighed yet again. He stood still as he finished his pear. He tossed the core behind him, and in the instant that it hit the ground, his pursuers leapt forth, ready for the attack.  
  
Alas for them...for as soon as they landed, they were frozen to the ground. The hands of the Kage Kubi Shibari snapped their necks like dry twigs, and Shikamaru took their soldier pills and other equipment after making sure they were dead. He grinned up at the clouds. It paid to study their movements every once in awhile. Heavy cloud coverage meant heavy shadows, after all.  
  
As he hefted the gear, he muttered to himself. It figured that Sasuke wouldn't even have the decency to give his men proper equipment. He wouldn't make much money selling these shuriken and kunai. The explosion notes were faulty, and he'd had to stamp one out. He threw away the solider pills. If the weapons were in such shoddy quality, who knew what might happen with the pills?  
  
Shikamaru grunted to himself. It was simply too much of a hassle, trying to survive in a world that Sasuke'd ruined. Picking another pear from a tree, he continued to walk forth, muttering to himself. Sasuke's day would come.  
  
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End Prologue!  
  
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	2. Chapter 1: Scarecrow in the Fields

Shadow of the Leaf  
  
By Kai the Enchanter  
  
Chapter 1: Scarecrow in the Fields  
  
AN: Well if that wasn't an obvious title, I don't know what else to do...also, the rating was upped, because...well, just in case...  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto sniffle  
  
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Night. Shikamaru had always liked the night. Unlimited shadows to work with...although most of the opponents Sasuke sent after him weren't strong enough to break the bonds of the Kagemane normally, having the night backing Shikamaru was certainly comforting. Currently, Nara Shikamaru was lying on his back, resting against the trunk of a gigantic tree, about a hundred feet above the forest floor. The full moon was extremely bright, and it was impossible for him to get to sleep like this. Cursing to himself, he leapt from the tree branch, into another tree, a little higher up, and therefore more dangerous, but better camoflaged, with thick foliage that would hide him from the moon and any hunter-nins that Sasuke had sent out.  
  
Settling down onto this new branch, Shikamaru noticed a scrap of orange paper stuck to the end. He smirked to himself. It wasn't quite large enough to be an explosive tag...it was harmless, physically. But emotionally, that little scrap of orange might have killed a lesser man. Sasuke had thought he'd completely won, and with ease, two years ago. After all, he'd surpassed his own limits, shown Orochimaru that the curse seal wasn't what he needed to gain strength. He'd trained under the sannin, and trained in secret by himself, until he'd become more powerful than Orochimaru. Afterwards, he'd done what any despot would've done. He attempted to take over the world. The other shinobi nations had successfully fended him off, of course. Konoha's fall had alerted them to as much. Sunagakure, however, was not so lucky. They'd already been weakened by the war they'd been tricked into fighting. Gaara of the Sand was the one hope that they had, but for reasons unknown, neither he nor his siblings had been present at any major battle with Sound forces. And now, they'd disappeared.  
  
Sasuke had killed thousands in his bid for power, and Shikamaru had watched as town streets became caked with blood, as the Akatsuki itself began to fall apart at the seams. It was rare to see an Akatsuki member in this day and age, when they, too, were hunted by Sound, for information relating to the location of Itachi, but the few times Shikamaru had seen them, and heard them speak, they'd been grumbling that Itachi should have killed Sasuke when he'd had the chance. The only thing that was holding their organization together was the supreme power of their mysterious leader. But Akatsuki stayed out of the slaughter.  
  
The deserts of Wind Country were stained bloodred now. Sasuke hadn't killed enough people to literally stain every patch of sand red, but it seemed as though the land itself cried out against the crimes of the Uchiha and his men. The inhabitants of Fire Country and Wind Country had left, searching for refuge in more hospitable places, places that could match Sasuke's strength. But Sasuke hadn't ignored the fact that his cheap labor supply was running away. Shikamaru had personally witnessed his shinobi hunting down the villagers that were attempting to evacuate. He'd seen them kill the youngest child of a family that had no suitable lands to plant on, that was leaving for Cloud Country, so that they could eke out a miserable existence there. He'd seen those murderers specifically kill the youngest joy of a family that was already bereft of joy.  
  
If only that had been the most monstrous thing he'd ever seen. No, Sasuke was only the beginning. While he was ultimate evil, as far as the world was thus concerned, it was what he'd unleashed that had been the worst. Sasuke'd killed Naruto for the Mangekyou Sharingan. What he didn't know was that while Naruto's soul had long since passed out of this world...his body was still moving. The man who'd once been Uzumaki Naruto had gone into hiding, and had only revealed himself after Sasuke'd razed Leaf. That...that was a terrible sight indeed. Kyuubi had somehow survived the death of his host, and he was back, and screaming bloody murder. Only his mortal shell, Naruto's body, could possibly have limited his powers.  
  
_A single man approaches the gates of the rebuilt Hidden Leaf, which is no more than a military camp. He knocks on the gates with his left hand, breaking them down with a single hit. As the shinobi guarding the walls watch in horror, he lets out an inhuman scream. Gigantic waves of chakra tear forth from his body, cutting down trees, ripping, tearing bodies...no...something far messier...far beyond what words can describe. The tears are irregular, sloppy, and the Sound shinobi scream in pain as the pure chakra tears them apart. The walls themselves crumble, reduced to mere sand.  
  
The apparition makes a mad rush for the center of the village, where Sasuke's mansion, of sorts, is located. As he runs, nine tails of bloodred chakra flow from behind him, destroying everything in their path. One can only watch in horror as everyone, innocent and guilty, prisoner and warden, are all ripped apart by the ravenous chakra. When Naruto...or Kyuubi...finally approached Sasuke's dwelling, the Uchiha had merely stepped out, with a raised eyebrow of surprise.  
  
Kyuubi let out a terrible roar, and raised a clawed hand, ready to slice the Mangekyou Sharingan right out of Sasuke's eye sockets. But instead, he lets out a terrific burst of chakra, hitting Sasuke directly in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the Uchiha. Sasuke retaliates with a massive onslaught of multi-element jutsu, all of which are deflected or absorbed by the Kyuubi. He curses in pure rage, as he recognizes the body of his foe.  
  
"You brought this upon yourself, boy...now pay the price!" The Kyuubi had spiraled into its own version of the Inuzuka clan's Tsuuga, whizzing past Sasuke. As the Uchiha cursed yet again, the Kyuubi grinned, malice in its eyes.  
  
"You...you monster." The Kyuubi merely gave a cold laugh.  
  
"You are the true monster. You killed your best friend, and for what? For a set of eyes that are prettier than the last ones you had? You killed a friend so that you could avenge the death of your family??! You spat on their graves with that act!" Sasuke now roared in anger.  
  
"NO! I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO! YOU'RE NOT FIT TO JUDGE ME!" The Uchiha had hurled himself into the Kyuubi, impaling the fox with a katana. Now, the Uchiha summoned Manda. The giant snake had appeared, and promptly set to lecture Sasuke about the foolishness and futility of fighting the ultimate Youkai. But no...Sasuke had survived the fight. He and Manda attacked ferociously...but not to kill. The Kyuubi was beyond life and death. Once its borrowed body died, the Kyuubi would wander the world as a lost soul for some years. But he would return, and Sasuke would still be there for him to kill. No...Sasuke had found a sealing technique that would subdue his foe. He sacrificed a hundred children, most not even old enough to enroll in the Ninja Academy...if it'd still existed. He'd had his men use their blood to draw giant ritual circles, and characters. The Seal had encompassed the entire village, and when it was finally activated, it had bound the Kyuubi and dragged it underground. It was still there, to this day, bound by the magical chains of the sealing technique. Every year, a hundred more children were sacrificed, to keep the technique going. To keep the Kyuubi from killing one man._  
  
If it were not for Shikamaru's incredible willpower, he would've been haunted every night by the memory of those who'd been slaughtered for Sasuke. As it was, he could never truly stop thinking about it. It was always there, beneath his consciousness. Even as he drifted off to sleep, he wondered if he could have saved those children.  
  
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Early the next morning, Shikamaru got up, and continued along his way. He was hoping to make it to Cloud Country, and ask the Raikage to help him in his battle against Sound and Sasuke. The Mizukage had already agreed, on the condition that the other two major shinobi nations would also help. Any one of them could have destroyed Sasuke's forces, but the fact was that Sasuke had the greatest of all Youkai chained up under his base of operations. If worse came to worse, he could simply unleash the Kyuubi and flee. It would easily raze all their nations. After all...there were no men of Yondaime's caliber left alive in the world.  
  
Shikamaru winced as he thought of the memory of the Yondaime. What had the man hoped for when he'd sealed Kyuubi in a mere boy? He should have found some other way to seal it, he thought. Or at least he could have sealed it in a boy of no account, who would never know how to access it, and would never have been found by the Akatsuki. As he leapt through the trees, Shikamaru reprimanded himself. He knew his thoughts on such a subject were useless. It was twenty years too late to question the Yondaime. Now...life felt good. The morning air felt delicious in his lungs, and while he knew that the greater part of Fire Country had been terribly damaged, Shikamaru loved the feel of the forest beneath his feet. He snagged a fruit from a tree as he leapt past it. Recognizing it as a poisonous fruit, he muttered to himself and tossed it away.  
  
The ripe, red-gold fruit dropped through the forest, tumbling to some undeniably gruesome destiny on the forest floor. Until it was snagged by a gloved hand, inspected, and then given back its original course. This time, though, it was close enough to the floor so that it didn't shatter when it dropped. The gloved hand returned to a green pouch, where it searched around for something, before returning to its original duty of floating listlessly in the air.  
  
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It was now noon, and Shikamaru had run out of forest. Before him lay inexplicably, a cornfield. He'd thought they'd all been burned or pillaged by Sasuke's forces, but he didn't complain. He could get some dinner, and use the stalks as a cover. It was better than flat plains, anyway. He waited till the midday sun was cut off by a passing cloud, and then slunk into the cornfield.  
  
Walking slowly and carefully, Shikamaru picked a few ears and continued along his way. Continued, until he ran into a wooden plank. The plank had been driven into the ground. It was about ten feet tall, and hanging on it was a farmer's scarecrow. Shikamaru looked at it suspiciously, and was about to dismiss it as nothing, when it suddenly turned upside down. Shikamaru glared at it, and tried to poke at its side with a kunai. That was when the scarecrow's hand reached up and grabbed his wrist.  
  
Shikamaru gave a yell and broke the man's grip, leaping backwards and reaching for his shuriken. The scarecrow exploded into a puff of smoke, and when it had cleared, the young Nara beheld the masked form of Hatake Kakashi, hanging upside down from a wooden plank. His exposed eye closed into a small arc, what passed for a smile with Copy Ninja Kakashi.  
  
"Yo."  
  
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End of Chapter 1.  
  
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	3. Chapter 2: Genius and Genius

Shadow of the Leaf

By Kai the Enchanter

Disclaimer: Owning Naruto, huh? No.

Chapter Two: Genius and Genius

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Shikamaru stared at Kakashi, in shock. The man had disappeared during Sasuke's attack on Konoha two years ago. Where had he been in all this time? It had been said that Kakashi's progress as a great shinobi had halted for a few years, but had continued when he pushed himself for his failure in teaching Sasuke. It had been said that Kakashi was one of the few shinobi left who could stop Sasuke. It had _even _been said that at the time of Sasuke's attack, Kakashi had been on the verge of equaling his sensei's abilities. But where had this man been?

"You seem surprised to see me." Kakashi dropped down, and plucked an ear of corn off the ground, and looked at it, smiling.

"Hatake Kakashi was said to be the only shinobi left who could defeat Uchiha Sasuke in single combat. If that's true, then where have you been? Where were you the night Konoha fell? You could have stopped him, or at least you could have helped Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi sighed, and walked away from Shikamaru, into the fields.

Shikamaru followed him, to a small house, probably smaller than a genin's apartment. Inside, there was soup cooking on a fire, and bread baking. Kakashi dropped a few ears of corn onto the table next to the cooking food. Shikamaru glared at the older man. Kakashi couldn't have survived long like this. Even assuming he had enough food to survive, Sasuke's men would have noticed the smoke coming from the fire, or the smell of the food.

"Wind element seal. No smells get out. Also there's a few seals that make this area look like complete wasteland, not even fit for training in."

"Then why did I see it as a corn field?"

"You're a very skilled shinobi. I also modified the seal for your benefit, so that you'd walk through and find me instead of circling around it."

"How long have you been following me?"

"Since you started off this morning. Now, what was it you asked before? Ah yes...where I was when Sasuke attacked our village. Well, if you must know, Nara Shikamaru, I was a little occupied."

"What task was more important than stopping Uchiha Sasuke?"

"I'll admit, there aren't many tasks that would be more important than that. But I think tearing Hoshigaki Kisame's lungs out qualifies as one of them. And I think things would have turned out for the worse had Kisame been allowed to live." Shikamaru gaped at Kakashi. He'd heard that two years ago, the missing-nin from Hidden Mist had been found, with his chest burst open. He was carrying mission scrolls from the Akatsuki that ordered him to destroy Hidden Mist. He wouldn't have succeeded on his own, but with any other member of the Akatsuki, Hidden Mist would've followed the same fate as Konoha.

"Aa." Kakashi smiled again, and plunked a bowl of soup in front of Shikamaru. He slid a plate of bread, corn, and some sort of meat, presumably chicken, across the table to him.

"Did you know that there are no fields left in all of Fire Country that are fit for the cultivation of rice? Terrible, just terrible." Shikamaru nodded absent-mindedly, not really taking in Kakashi's words. They didn't seem too particularly important, anyway. The soup was a bit more interesting anyway. Somehow Kakashi had gotten ahold of tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, green onions, just about everything that would've been available in Fire Country years ago, when the future was bright.

"Well...there may be a few fields left right outside of Konoha. Sasuke always did like his rice balls. I go on a little trip every six months, steal some of Sasuke's rice, bring it back here, to use for sushi. Keeps him on his toes, let me tell ya." Now Shikamaru had to glare again.

"Then why haven't you stopped Sasuke now? You know where he is, you know he knows you're still alive, and that he has to kill you eventually. He's probably got his men combing all of Fire Country searching for you." Kakashi didn't reply. He looked at his soup.

"You know, Shikamaru. I simply haven't been ready to kill Sasuke. If anyone can kill Sasuke, they say that I can. But we don't know for sure. More importantly, in my heart, I'm not ready. These two years, I've been training, but I've also been searching. I will kill him one day. I have no doubt that I will either kill him or die by his hand. But I have a duty that I have to fulfill. When I kill Uchiha Sasuke, I want to lay down by his side a package of Cup Ramen, and the first cherry blossoms of spring. The cherry blossoms were easy to find, you know, but ramen...that's scarce these days, as one might expect. Now eat up. I've been waiting for another Leaf shinobi to show up for two years, I'm not wasting any time tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, we train. Tomorrow, we set out to make Uchiha Sasuke's life worthless."

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Shikamaru and Kakashi awoke with the dawn, and stepped out into the fields behind Kakashi's house. There was a good open grassy area, with a lake, supplied by a spring of pure water that drew water from the mountain in the distance, a majestic monolith that dominated the skyline.

"Show me what you can do, Nara." Shikamaru yawned, and looked at Kakashi. He hadn't bothered to unveil his Sharingan, but his hand twitched a little, as though he would be ready to do so any moment now.

_"He's not taking me seriously. Ah well, I'm used to it. At least he didn't take the book out."_

Shikamaru drew a kunai, and threw it at Kakashi, who dodged to the side, throwing a trio of shuriken at Shikamaru. Shikamaru flicked his wrist to the side, and Kakashi gaped as the kunai swung back, deflecting one of the shuriken as Shikamaru dodged the other two. He saw that a metal wire ran from the kunai, and hung loosely from Shikamaru's wrist. Shikamaru grinned, and pulled the wire back, hurling the kunai yet again. This time Kakashi didn't dodge.

Kakashi flipped up his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan eye, and knocked Shikamaru's kunai out of the air with his own, preparing to draw his own shuriken, when he froze. He stared down at the ground, where he saw Shikamaru's shadow. The kunai and wire had cast a shadow that was connected to Shikamaru's own, allowing him to extend it as shadow traveled through shadow.

"I didn't expect to have to use it against you." And Kakashi glared at Shikamaru, his ordinary Sharingan solidifying into the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Shikamaru found himself wandering in an abyss, where he heard terrible screams. Kakashi appeared out of a thick fog.

"It's over. I could put you into a coma with this if I chose." Shikamaru muttered to himself and looked at Kakashi.

"Try me." The world twisted and moved, and Shikamaru found himself impaled by katanas, burned by flame, frozen, slashed, and beaten. But he didn't succumb to the illusion. The Uchiha genjutsu wasn't having much affect. He was mentally becoming wearier as he fought it off, but the actual jutsu would have been much worse. Finally, both he and Kakashi found themselves in the real world again, and both collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

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"How'd you get the Mangekyou Sharingan? I thought you had to kill your best friend to get it." Shikamaru and Kakashi were collapsed next to the lake, where they'd splashed water on their faces, revitalizing themselves.

"I got it a long time ago. It wasn't until after Sasuke abandoned the Leaf that I found out how one came to use it. It wasn't until then that I realized that I had the power all along."

"How'd you get it?"

"The mist makes things hard to see." Shikamaru didn't press the issue, and Kakashi stood up shakily.

"Let's go again. No holding back this time."

"You were holding back before?" Shikamaru also stood up, and readied himself. Without another word, the two attacked each other again, kunai and shuriken clashing.

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End of Chapter Two

That was fun.

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